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Trip.com, China’s largest online travel agency, eyeing 20 per cent growth over longer term, says current boom won’t be short-lived

  • Firm targeting year-on-year growth of between 15 and 20 per cent over the next three to five years, CEO says
  • Survey shows domestic tourists determined to increase their spending on travel, setting aside concerns about job prospects and incomes, travel agency says

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A file photo of visitors at the Ruins of St. Paul’s in Macau from last month. In the first half of 2023, China’s travel sector raked in total revenues of 2.3 trillion yuan (US$315.2 billion), up 96 per cent year on year, according to Ministry of Culture and Tourism data. Photo: Bloomberg
Daniel Renin Shanghai

Trip.com Group, China’s largest online travel agency, does not expect a stalled national economy to halt its pursuit of annualised growth of up to 20 per cent over the next three to five years.

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Jane Sun Jie, the Shanghai-based company’s CEO, told the Post that demand for leisure travel by local tourists across mainland China would be strong enough to spur growth at Trip.com. She allayed concerns about a short-lived travel boom amid fears that pent-up demand – triggered by China’s reopening following three years of stringent Covid-19 pandemic curbs – will soon be fully spent.

“We firmly believe in ‘no travel, no life’,” Sun said on Monday. “We see no real impact on the travel industry [from a stalled economy]. We are targeting year-on-year growth of somewhere between 15 and 20 per cent, over the next three to five years.”

Sun said a survey of users on Trip.com’s booking platform showed that most of them were determined to increase their spending on travel, setting aside concerns about job prospects and incomes.

Tourism was China’s worst-hit economic sector between 2020 and 2022 because of lockdown restrictions and border closures. It emerged as one of the fastest-growing industries in the world’s second-largest economy after Beijing shifted from its zero-Covid strategy to living with the coronavirus in January this year.
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But an off-the-charts recovery sparked speculation that massive spending on travel would run out of steam in the coming months, when tourists would stop splashing out on hotels, airline tickets and dining out due to a slowing economy.

Trip.com is also working with Chinese authorities to buoy inbound foreign tourism, its CEO says. Photo: Shutterstock
Trip.com is also working with Chinese authorities to buoy inbound foreign tourism, its CEO says. Photo: Shutterstock
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